Minnesota Independent » Carbon

Will fraud ruin carbon trading?

Dan Haugen — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:35:58 +0000

“Sadly, at this point, one has to lean toward saying yes,” says EnergyTechStocks.com, a global financial blog. It points to a World Wildlife Fund estimate that one of every five carbon credits issued by the United Nations actual goes to projects that are increasing emissions.

Throwing more fuel on ethanol debate

Dan Haugen — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:33:23 +0000

A new biofuels study that started at the University of Minnesota is getting big attention today in newspapers and the blogosphere. The research, a collaboration between the and The Nature Conservancy, concludes that biofuels like ethanol can be bad for the environment when demand for ingredients like corn motivates growers to convert prairie or forests into farmland. That’s because rain forests, peatlands, even grasslands store large amounts of carbon, which is released into the atmosphere when the land is cleared. The report calls this the “biofuel carbon debt” and says it can release 17 to 420 times more carbon dioxide than the annual greenhouse gas reductions the biofuels provide displacing fossil fuels. The exception is ethanol made from U.S. prairie grasses, which carry no carbon debt.

Is climate change McCain’s red-haired, ugly stepchild?

Dan Haugen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:13:54 +0000

Sen. John McCain has been the most outspoken and aggressive of Republican presidential hopefuls when it comes to solving climate change. While Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are ready with sound bites when cornered by reporters or pressed in a debate, McCain is the only candidate who chooses to bring up the importance of cutting carbon emissions. Among his credentials, he’s co-authored a carbon cap-and-trade bill with Sen. Joe Lieberman that aims to cut emissions 65 percent by 2050.

So environmentalists aren’t happy with McCain for skipping a Senate vote Wednesday on an economic stimulus package that would have extended $3 billion in tax credits to the renewable energy industry. It failed by one vote. Both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were present and voted yes.

The Solve Climate blog points out that it’s the second time in two months that McCain has missed an important energy vote that failed by a single tally. In December, he missed a vote to include clean-energy incentives in an energy bill. Writes David Sassoon on SolveClimate.com:

“Romney now wears the flip-flop crown in campaign-land, but it’s McCain who is the reigning King of Clean Energy Hypocrisy. It further darkens the threatening cloud of suspicion that already hangs over the sincerity of his positive rhetoric on climate action.”

Coal prices to jump next year, Citigroup says

Dan Haugen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:50:53 +0000

First $100 a barrel oil. Soon $100 per metric ton coal?

Citigroup is forecasting the price of thermal coal will nearly double in 2008-09 from its current price of $55 per ton — and that doesn’t reflect the cost of anticipated carbon regulation. The price spike has more to do with weather than climate: A harsh, snowstormy winter is chilling mining activity in China, and flooding has washed out production in Australian mines.

It’s the second batch of bad news for coal to come from the company’s Citi Investment Research division in less than a year. In July, a Citigroup analyst advised against investing in coal companies due to a variety of concerns. It noted that natural gas is grabbing a bigger share of power generation, and that new “clean-coal” technologies have failed to develop and remain a decade or more away.

Citigroup also predicted election-year politics won’t be favorable to the industry:

“Candidates are already stepping up to ‘ban coal,’” the analyst, John Hill, wrote, “while company productivity/margins are likely to be structurally impaired by new regulatory mandates applied to a group perceived as landscape-disfiguring, global-warming bad guys.”

Minnesota organizations to participate in emissions registry

Dan Haugen — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:12:19 +0000

Five Minnesota organizations are among the first to sign up for a national greenhouse gas emissions registry.

Xcel Energy, Great River Energy, the Metropolitan Council, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and The Appliance Recycling Centers of America have joined The Climate Registry, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit hoping to standardize emission reporting and measurement. The registry is expected to simplify any future plans for emissions trading, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Fifty-five founding reporters from around the country will begin submitting their emissions totals to the registry beginning June 30. It will track greenhouse gas emissions including CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

Minnesota joins vehicle emissions lawsuit against EPA

Dan Haugen — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:22:27 +0000

Minnesota has joined 16 other states in suing the Bush administration for the right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Attorney General Lori Swanson announced today that her office is joining the lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which in December denied California the ability to limit vehicle emissions.

The California standards would force automakers to cut greenhouse gas emission from tailpipes by 30 percent by 2016. California officials say the rules would have twice as much impact as the fuel-efficiency standards passed by Congress last month.

“I would like to see the federal government take a leadership role in addressing global warming. In the absence of leadership at the federal level, we need to show good stewardship at the state level,” Swanson said in a press release.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, the federal government can give California a waiver to create its own air quality regulations. Other states can adopt either the federal standards or California’s rules.

Thirteen of the 15 states that initially joined California in the lawsuit have already passed or are in the process of passing California’s standards. Minnesota has not, although bills have been introduced in the House and Senate that would align it with California.

Critical Climate Podcasts: Global Warming & Building Construction with Rick Carter

Dan Haugen — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:00:00 +0000

It’s New Year’s Eve, and time for the third installment in our series of daily podcasts about global warming, how we addressed it in 2007 and what trends we can expect in 2008.

Each podcast focuses on a single source of greenhouse gas emissions. Last week’s podcasts focused on electricity generation (Thursday) and transportation (Friday). Tomorrow’s topic is residential energy use.

Today, we’re talking about building construction with Rick Carter, a LEED accredited architect who is a board member with the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Carter explains some of the ambitious goals green builders adopted in 2007.